A Promising Practice: Low Incidence Teacher Education in Rural and Remote California

Rural Special Education Quarterly, Summer 2005 by Larwood, Lou

Support for School Administrators

The SJSU program director meets with every educational program administrator who has hired a teacher of the deaf in the SJSU Program who works in a rural or remote area in northern California. The SJSU Director provides the administrator with the credential program requirements, explains how these requirements will affect the teacher candidate's work schedule and schedules release time needed to complete the program. Every school administrator has given support in releasing teacher candidates to take classes and complete any needed credential requirements. Frequent personal contacts (live or online) with each educational administrator have been crucial, as many are not clear about the credential requirements.

The advantage of the ongoing contacts with school administrators are two-fold: (1) the SJSU Program Director becomes familiar with each of the rural school programs, services, unique needs and demands the new teacher candidate faces, and (2) the school administrators' need to learn about the credential requirements, requisite release time, and skills the teacher candidates will be mastering, hence becoming a stronger support for the teacher candidate throughout the program. These partnerships ensure that the SJSU distance teacher candidates feel a strong sense of support throughout his/her course of study.

In contrast, the SJSU Program Director meets with local school administrators once a semester. The most common reason for the reduced contact is that campusbased teacher candidates are routinely placed in local regional or county programs for practica and student teaching placements each fall and spring semester and the relationship is well established. As a result, the SJSU Program Director and school administrators contacts are focused more on student placement compatibility or recruitment of teacher candidates.

Substitute teachers for release time. The SJSU program director helps locate substitute teachers if at all possible for rural programs that need to release teacher candidates to attend required courses. The most common reason for this is the absence of substitute teachers who can sign language fluency or have any experience working with deaf children. Another advantage of the Distance Learning Program is the opportunity for graduate students in the SJSU program who live in rural areas and are not working to substitute for teacher candidates as they gain some much-needed classroom experience while working with deaf children. In contrast, local Bay area programs have a pool of substitutes who do sign and are available for teachers' release time.

Program visibility with rural agencies. The SJSU program director attends rural regional special education meetings, county office of education meetings, and conferences with school superintendents, principals and program specialists. This personal, consistent and ongoing communication between teacher candidates, employers and the university is key to the success of the distance-learning program at SJSU. School administrators' knowledge of the new credential requirements has varied due to the enormous responsibilities placed upon them in their own job. Administrators often express relief as they are provided support and specific information about each teacher that is in the program. The role of the school administrator or "representative" has varied due to the size of the district or county. Many times the new teacher candidate is not clear as to who they report to because the program they serve might be run by a county educational agency while the classroom is located on a school district site. Attendance at large rural meetings has provided the needed means of keeping the program visible and in the minds of professionals who may hire a teacher of the deaf.